A new sankirtan initative has started in the Benelux, in a devotee friendly way. With no pressure and based on fun, the monthly festival of Sankirtan Saturday was created. It started on the weekend of Oct. 8th and9th. Some factors were: language barriers (the books are in Dutch, French, and English) and devotees feeling scared to go. Ninety percent of them never have done sankirtana. (more…)
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Sankirtana revival in Radhadesh
Posted: October 18, 2010 in As On BDN, Sankirtana SaturdayTags: Belgium, Book Distribution, Journey
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I was on my first day of book distribution with HG Navina Nirada Prabhu. We headed down to our local spot, Byron Bay. We did a harinam, sought the blessings of the ocean and then purified ourselves with some Prasadam. Now that we felt sufficiently purified we were ready to engage in the sankirtana yajna of book distribution.
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It was mid year marathon in Sydney city. I was distributing books outside a busy shopping mall with HG Yasodeva Prabhu. I was amazed that books were actually going out for a change. It was a strange crowd and I was throwing out every sankirtana line I knew. I saw a group of young islander girls. “Are you girls students, workers or dancers?” I said. They seemed too preoccupied to hear what I was saying but they somehow managed to catch the last line. “Oh my god, how did you know we were dancers?” they responded. (Apparently they were a dance troupe.) I had caught their attention and it was time to seal their fate. “I’m psychic” I replied. Now they were totally amazed. (more…)
We were in Town Hall, Sydney, Australia. There was a big parade
honoring the war veterans. Soon it died down and so did the flow on the streets. We now had several book distributors and not enough people to stop between us. Bhakta Sean wasn’t feeling the vibe of the whole ordeal so we decided to go for a wander down to Martin Place (another good sankirtana spot). (more…)
It was a typical Sunday feast in New Govardhana Australia. I sat next to my brother and I gazed over the crowd, hoping to find some nice people to talk to.
I was in Bondi, Sydney, distributing books. I stopped a teenage boy. He
looked very interested as I showed him Bhagavad Gita. He was very eager but was a little worried when I asked for a donation. I told him to give what he could. He dug out his wallet and had a few dollars in coins. I could tell he was eager for spiritual life and didn’t want to sell him short. I gave him a Perfect Escape (small book by Devamrita Swami). I told him that this was a start off and if he liked this book then he should give me a call and I will give him some more books. I had a feeling that the book was meant for him, based on what we had talked about. As I wrote down my number for him I chuckled and told him that I wouldn’t even be in the country in a couple weeks.
Our backyard had become a mess of dirt and broken concrete. There were piles of soil and stacks of wood. The back laundry was shared with a wall of tools and shovels. A man was renovating our backyard under the order of the land lord. We passed him each day at breakfast while using the back laundry to wash our plates. The devotees and I made some small chat as we went by and life went on as normal. Sometimes we were in dohtis and sometimes we were in normal street wear but the man acted as if it was all normal.
The day was looking to be a typical day on sankirtana it seemed. All of a sudden I heard my sankirtana partner, Uddhava Prabhu, having an animated discussion. He laughed out loud all of a sudden. It was hard to tell from his laugh if he was jubilant or upset. The man left his company and walked down my way. I wasn’t sure how to react but he approached me.
We were scheduled to distribute in Liverpool, one of the suburbs in Sydney,Australia. Maya’s agents were out to get us from square one. The elevators and escalators were closed all throughout the underground system, our choice of transport for the day. This caused us great delays and even caused some boxes to topple over but finally we made it.
Thursday, 2 April 2009.
I was on my first day on books with HH Devamrita Swami’s team in Sydney, Australia. Inspired to seek some association (and frankly to boost my scores) I sought out some experience with the more experienced. We set out on my first sankirtana adventure in Sydney for the year, down to Town Hall. (more…)
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